ACC All Access: Virginia Tech's Antone Exum won't play at Georgia Tech, J.C. Coleman may not play vs. Marshall

Norm Wood

Virginia Tech cornerback Antone Exum and running back J.C. Coleman are both doing what they can in practices, but it might be a while before they see field on game day.

A Tech athletic department representative said Tuesday that Exum will have his injured right knee checked out by Dr. James Andrews after Virginia Tech’s ACC opener Sept. 26 at Georgia Tech. Exum, who had surgery in February to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and microfracture surgery and who hasn’t played this season, won’t play at Georgia Tech.

Coleman said Tuesday he may miss Saturday’s game against Marshall (2-1) while he continues to recover from a high left ankle sprain. He injured the ankle in mid-August and he’s only played against Western Carolina. He said he wants to be 100 percent for the start of the ACC slate at Georgia Tech.

It’s hard to imagine having Coleman last Saturday in Tech’s 15-10 win at East Carolina would’ve helped the Hokies much, considering the Pirates played to stop the run. Tech ran for 53 yards.

Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes said ECU’s use of an odd front on the defensive line created one-on-one matchups that Tech’s center and tackles didn’t do a good job of winning. Grimes said on most occasions Tech’s inability to run the ball came down to “one particular block breaking down.”

Tech’s Brent Benedict, who started six games last season at offensive guard, made his first start at right tackle over Laurence Gibson. Benedict started getting regular reps at right tackle prior to the Western Carolina game due to injuries at the tackle spot.

“When I first made the decision about who the five starters were, Brent was close,” Grimes said. “He was close to being in position and he was certainly the next guy, but then often what happens with guys when they don’t win the starting job is they go downhill. They lose their confidence. They lose their motivation. He did exactly the opposite. He just continued to work very hard.”

Benedict said prior to Western Carolina game week he had only spent a few practices at tackle. He’s still picking up the position, but getting to concentrate solely on the position in practice has helped his maturation.

“I feel like that helped progress me a lot,” Benedict said. “The pass protection is a little bit different, the spacing and the timing of guys being quicker off the edge at tackle. I’ve been trying to get my steps down in the run game at tackle and guard.”

Tech running backs coach Shane Beamer said ECU’s defense was better than most people give it credit for, and he left the game thinking it was better than what he expected.

Despite ECU’s determination to stop the run, which Beamer said caused offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler and quarterback Logan Thomas to decide early in the third quarter to essentially abandon the run and start passing (“that’s the g-rated version of what it was,” Beamer said), Beamer still felt like Tech could’ve done more on the ground.

“I still feel like we left some yards out there,” Beamer said. “We’ve got to continue to be more disciplined with where our eyes are, what we’re reading. Then, to be totally honest, I thought we as coaches could’ve done a better job, as well, adjusting and doing some different things.

“We felt like going into it as a staff that we’d be able to get in two-back and run the ball a little more consistently than we did with a fullback in there. We were struggling…If we wanted to run it, we probably should’ve gotten into some more one-back runs as the game went along.”